[Elecraft] elecraft at mailman.qth.net

[Jan Ditzian]

I hope that this is the last message in this thread, although I suspect 
that there will be a bunch of I-told-you-so's.  I resolved the RFI and 
distortion problem with my 67 foot vertical on 75/80 meters.  The 
difficulty was, as some suggested, with the station ground.  I should 
have realized that 20 years of a wire clamped to a copper rod exposed to 
the elements would probably result in some oxidation.  I removed the 
clamp and used steel wool to scour the rod, the inside of the clamp, and 
the wire (I do not remember the exact size, but it is substantially 
larger than #10).  I put everything back and now I no longer have audio 
oscillation nor spikes on the SB-610 scope.

When I first put things back together, I forgot to ground the K3 itself, 
but the audio was clean.  I suspect that the corroded ground acted as a 
semiconductor that detected the RF.  Anyway, the purists among you can 
relax, I attached the ground to the K3 and it still works.

In my usual fashion, I chased down the cheap solutions before the costly 
ones.  At this point, I am using the 50 ohm feedline with the commercial 
1:1 balun, but, weather permitting, I may try the hardline and chokes 
again (cheaper that way).

I want to thank the many hams who responded to my call for help and gave 
me plenty to chew on.  I especially want to thank Joe, Phil, and Bob, 
although everyone's input helped.

Happy Thanksgiving, good DX, and GL in CQWW,

Jan, KX2A